6Dec/112

Prospect offers a drink. What next?

Not everything in sales is as complicated as funnel management or sales forecasting. Let me present a familiar conundrum: You’re in a client’s office for a meeting and she asks if you’d like anything to drink. Do you accept?

This ubiquitous situation presents salespeople everywhere with a dilemma:

  • If I accept, am I being too friendly? Greedy? Awkward?
  • If I say no, am I being rude? Arrogant? Awkward?

The answer depends on who's offering.

Are they direct?

or

Are they accommodating?

If you're with a direct person and you're not thirsty, it's probably okay to pass. If you're thirsty, take the offer.

If you're with an accommodating person, there's a chance that the offer is being made because of their own thirst. Accept.

Simple, I know.

Of course, in either case, you should be polite.

  • “Yes, please. May I have a glass of water.”
  • “No, thank you. I’m fine.”

What about you? What do you do? How do you handle this quandary?

-@JebBrooks

Filed under: Professional Selling 2 Comments
23Nov/112

Avoiding the Activity Trap

Many salespeople make the faulty assumption that activity leads to results. “As long as I’m doing something,” they argue, “results will come.”

This is a mistake. It's the best way to get stuck in the activity trap. The activity trap occurs when you begin working too hard to make the sale. Sales is much simpler than a lot of salespeople make it out to be.

Above all, your interactions must be meaningful. If all you're doing on a call with a prospect is saying 'hello,' all you'll hear is 'hell no.' Instead, your activities need to fall into one of these four productive buckets:

  1. They educate your prospects.
  2. They uncover essential information about your prospect.
  3. They reveal pivotal information about your solution to your prospect.
  4. They close opportunities (for the good or bad).

First, Educational activities provide information to your prospects that make them more receptive to your messaging. These kinds of activities help them understand the business impact you can have on their operation. They help them understand that you have something meaningful to say to them. Examples include:

  • Sending useful content (e.g., articles, whitepapers, etc.) to them
  • Sponsoring roundtable discussions for your prospects to meet your happy customers
  • Publishing pamphlets about your solution
  • Providing well-documented case studies to your prospects

Activities that allow you to uncover essential information about your prospects are some of the most important. The most common is the face-to-face (or phone-to-phone) meeting. These probing meetings allow you to ask meaningful questions that help (1) demonstrate your expertise in their field and (2) gather information you need to make a meaningful recommendation to them. They include:

  • Surveys
  • Interviews
  • Focus Groups
  • Sales Interviews

Revealing your recommended solution to your prospect is -- obviously -- essential. Doing it, though, requires more than just activity. Instead, meaningful sales presentations are carefully targeted to your prospects particular situation. This can be done in any number of ways, but is dependent on effectively uncovering practical information in your probing meeting.

  • Webinars
  • Formal Presentations
  • Demonstrations
  • Tours

Finally, the most directly meaningful of all sales activities are those that close business. This is typically in some kind of interaction between a salesperson and a prospect-turned-customer. Alternatively, you might discover that a particular prospect isn't a good fit for your solution. This, too, can be good because it allows you to move on.

If your “activity” doesn’t fall into one of those four buckets, it’s probably wasteful. Many outside reps believe that activity begets results. With one slight change, the statement becomes true:

The Right Activity Begets Meaningful Results.

- @JebBrooks

Tagged as: 2 Comments
8Nov/110

There’s not a first time for everything. Only for the things that you actually do.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Unfortunately, most journeys never get started. Lately, I’ve been struggling with selecting which projects to begin and which ones to shy away from.

Being able to say “no” is a critical part of effective time management. But too many salespeople are willing to chase any opportunity at the expense of focusing on the most valuable ones. 

As with most things, if you place labels on opportunities, it’s much easier to segment them into the ones that are worth pursuing and the ones that aren’t.

Let’s look at prospective customers. The ones that are most worth pursuing...

  • Have a need for your offering and are aware of it.
  • Have the legitimate ability and authority to buy from you.
  • Have a relative sense of urgency about the decision.
  • Have (or can develop) trust in you and your organization.
  • Are willing to listen to you.

The more of those characteristics your prospects exhibit, the more worthy they are of your investment of time, energy, and resources.

Too often, salespeople aren't willing to face the hard, cold truth that all prospects aren't created equally. Instead, they waste time with prospects who aren't qualified at the expense of putting forth the (difficult) work of searching for the most qualified ones.

In short, there's not a first time for everything. But there should be a first, second, third, fourth... time for the right thing. And the right thing in sales is always to get in front of qualified prospects!

The lesson? Say "No!" to weak opportunities and "Yes!" to valuable ones.

Over to you now...

  • How do you select the most valuable opportunities? What criteria do you use?
  • Have you ever gotten bogged down in a project and struggled to get out of it?

-@JebBrooks

Filed under: Professional Selling No Comments
3Nov/110

Stop the Wasted Emails

I just sent an email I regret. It went something like this:

“Okay.”

What a waste! Emails that simply acknowledge without adding any value should stop. Here are some examples of emails that should never be sent:

“Thanks!”

“Sounds good.”

“See you then.”

"Alright."

"Fine with me."

And, dare I say...

“Okay.”

They provide no real value. Sure, quick acknowledgements are sometimes important. However, if you are trying to confirm a meeting, add in the purpose of the gathering and the specific time and location. That’s confirmation! Simply saying, “Understand,” isn’t useful.

When you're selling, every single contact you have with a prospect must add compelling value. Your time -- and theirs -- is simply too important to waste.

Anytime you're contacting a customer or prospect, it better be good. In short:

if all you're doing is saying 'hello,' all you'll hear is 'hell no!'

Stop sending those emails! They require the recipient to waste the calories required to tap the “Delete” button. Please, help put an end to it!

-@JebBrooks

Tagged as: , No Comments
31Oct/110

New Salespeople Are Draining

It’s Monday morning and your newest Salesperson is starting in an hour. What are you going to do? Show them the coffee machine and their desk and go about your business? Turn them away and ask them to come back another day?

Sometimes, it seems like it’s easier to keep doing more with less, knowing your life would be simpler if you hire a new person just because you don’t want the hassle of onboarding and training her.

However, onboarding is a lot simpler if you think back to your own experience. Can you recall a job where the training experience was positive? What was that like? How can you repeat it for others?

Often, training a new hire can be a daunting task if you’re in a smaller business or department without established processes.

It’s best if you’ve just got a simple, prebuilt, uniform new hire orientation system.  In order to build one, all you have to do is compile the basics. That’ll go a long way.

  • Where are the supplies?
  • What paperwork is required?
  • What mistakes have been made in the past?
  • What should your new hire know about her territory?
  • And, perhaps most importantly, who can you pair the new hire up with to do a ride-along?

Orientation in sales is tough. Your team is probably made up with some fairly independent people. They’re in sales, at least partially, because they the like working on their own.

Build a new-hire orientation kit before your new-hire’s first day.

It should include those basics and a whole lot more. Why did you hire this person? Share that with them. It’s probably a good indication of the ingredients for success.

At the same time, what concerns did you have? Those are some areas for coaching.

As an aside, we offer an assessment instrument that generates an onboarding package based on the specific abilities of your new-hire AND the requirements of your position. Click here for more information.

@JebBrooks

Filed under: Professional Selling No Comments
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